Instagram has quietly made a native payment feature available to a handful of accounts. 

It allows users to set up a credit or debit card on a profile and then make purchases through the app without navigating to a third party store or website.

The new ease of purchase could bring a lot of eyes to Instagram in the commerce space. Instagram currently doesn't allow hyperlinks, but instead uses a 'shoppable tags' button that will take users to the site of an advertised brand or product.

The addition of a payment option inside Instagram could cut out this step, as well as lead to higher conversion rates given that less purchases will be subject to extra faff. 

Speaking to TechCrunch, a spokesperson at Insta confirmed that native payments for booking appointments such as restaurant reservations is now an accessible feature for some partners. 

Resy-vations

Dinner reservation app Resy is one of the first companies to have access to the booking feature. A number of Resy's clients' Instagram pages now offer a native payment option. 

Instagram said last year that it would "roll out the ability to book a service with a business directly from their profile later this year" but the option of native payments was not announced alongside that.

Techcrunch confirmed that most Instagram users in the U.S now have visible payment settings. Said settings are supported by parent company Facebook's payment terms of service.

Snapchat also began testing a native payments feature back in February. 

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